US Senate approves VA package
Published 8:57 am Friday, August 1, 2014
The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $17 billion veterans health reform package — the final congressional hurdle for authorization of Veterans Affairs health clinics in Lake Charles and Lafayette. Both Louisiana senators voted for the bill, which passed 91-3.
The Senate vote comes one day after all Louisiana House members voted in favor of the bill, which passed 420-5. White House press secretary Josh Earnest has said President Barack Obama welcomes the bipartisan deal.
The bill is designed to improve veterans’ health care and would authorize billions to fix a health program tarnished by long patient wait times and records misrepresentation to cover up delays.
The agreement contains $10 billion in emergency spending to make it simpler for veterans who cannot get timely appointments with VA doctors to get outside care; $5 billion to hire medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics nationwide.
“These two clinics should be built by now,” Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said by phone Thursday. “They were delayed first because of a bureaucratic screwup at the VA, and that delayed them way over a year. The bottom line is, I’m very happy and we’re going to get these done and they are going to be moving forward immediately.”
Groundbreaking for both clinics is expected to begin in six months, said Tammie Arnold, public affairs officer at Alexandria VA Health Care System. The Lake Charles clinic is predicted to be built in a year — six months ahead of the Lafayette clinic.
The Lake Charles clinic will be a renovation, while the Lafayette clinic will take longer because it will be a new building. The address of the Lake Charles clinic cannot be released until the lease is signed, Arnold said.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., agreed the battle to build clinics in Lake Charles and Lafayette has been going on for too long, and she commended the Louisiana delegation for uniting on the issue.
“We have over 30,000 veterans in Lafayette and almost 20,000 in the Lake Charles area. They’ve just had nowhere to get the health care we’ve promised,” Landrieu said by phone. “In addition to the other problems that veterans have had, like too long of wait times and inefficiencies in the hospitals and clinics, our veterans have had all that and the absence of any clinic to go to.”
